Sunday, January 30, 2011

I was taking the day off from quilting today because it is Sunday, but then I found out we are going over to my niece's tonight for dinner instead of tomorrow night and I needed to complete my grand-nephew's belated birthday present. It turned out real cute and I hope he likes it!!

Saturday, January 29, 2011

I got up this morning and exclaimed to everyone in my emails that I had a full day with nothing to do except quilt and so I was hoping to get this quilt at least to the setting point. Well, about 9 a.m. my Pollie dog started barking and the doorbell rang. I wasn't expecting anyone so I thought it was a salesman and they would be gone quickly. To my great and happy surprize, it was my brother from Mesa, AZ. He has been very sick since November and as far as I knew he was not planning on any travel anytime in the near future so I was thrilled!!

We chatted away the morning and then about 1 p.m. we went out to lunch with our Dad and then they both left around 2:30 to go to my great-nephew's last basketball game. But I bowed out saying I really wanted to get some quilting done. This is how far I got today and I am one happy camper!!

First step was to sew a 3-1/2 inch piece onto the 6-1/2 inch piece. So far so good. But then when I got to step 2 I only looked at the picture and DIDN'T read the instructions - sooooooooo I sewed all 12 pieces instead of only 6 pieces.

I spent the next hour or so picking out 6 of the sewn pieces. YES, this is a wonderfully simple quilt IF one reads the instructions!! Oh my, what a concept!!!

This little girl’s mother is a computer specialist from Helsinki, Finland. While her daughter is soundly asleep, she creates a completely different world … from whatever she can find around her! That’s how both of them became really famous. What a truly fabulous imagination!

If you would like to see more of Ms. Enersen's incredable pictures, just email me at akyoung49@yahoo.com and I will send you the email from my friend with lots of her great pictures!!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

I have been putting together quilt kits for my little eBay store and thought it would be a neat idea to give one away here as a celebration of Australia Day for all my friends down under!!!

This kit includes 2 - Collections for a Cause - Hope by Howard Marcus for Moda charm packs, chocolate brown Essentials Dots by Moda for the inner border and Gatsby by Heidi Pridemore for Timeless Treasures for the backing and binding. Kit also includes a small spool of Auriful Thread. You will need to supply the batting BUT there is a 20% off coupon for Summit Creek Quilts to do the quilting for you!!!

To win a chance at this great kit, just leave a comment about what you like about my blog or how I can improve it. And for a second chance at winning just become a follower and let me know in your comment you have done so. If you are already a follower, I love you and just remind me in your comment that you are already a follower!!!

Good luck to everyone and I will ask Shell over at The Raspberry Rabbits how I go about using that fancy random number generator that she uses in her giveaways to pick the winner!! Shell's a pro at this giveaway stuff and maybe her bunny Harrington will push the button on the random number generator for me!!

Monday, January 24, 2011

My darling great-nephew Spence plays on a basketball team and this past Saturday they played the only other team in the league that had not lost a game. Well, one of the teams had to walk away with a loss and sad to say, it was Spence's team!! But they al played so well!! It was amazing to watch their footwork and their shooting skills!! These kids are only 9-12 years old and it was a blast to watch them play!!

That's Spence in the purple shirt with his arms up!!

There's Spence again! Hoo! Hoo!!

Lots of action the entire game!!

Congratulations guys, you may have lost via the score but you are all winners!!﻿

Friday, January 21, 2011

Wow, it has been months since I have received any new Siggies in the Internatioanl Siggie group I belong to and then all of a sudden, I got two!! The first one I received a couple of weeks ago from Sandra Young:

Sandie lives in Ypsilani, Michigan. She has been married to her hubby, Jim for 19 years and has two grown children. Lucky girl just turned 60 a few weeks ago!! Now the best part of her life has just begun!! You go, girl!! Sandie enjoys a variety of handwork including, knitting, crochetting and quilting and her favorite needlework is the creating of reproduction antique samplers like Quaker samplers. I'd love to see some of those!! Even though Sandie has been sewing all her life, she just started quilting 10 years ago. I still have to send Sandie my Siggie!! It's coming, Sandie!!

The second Siggie arrived just a couple of days ago:

It is from Lucie Ameye! Now this young womn is a kick!! She is from Belgium and is 73 years old. If you notice, the middle section of her Siggie has a Vespa motor scooter - that is because she rides one and has ridden one for 53years!! What a woman!! Yeah!!

Lucie enjoys postcards, patchwork and quilting plus her Vespa, of course!! Her very favorite activity is gardening and she loves to travel, especailly to her little house in Durbuy, Ardennen, where the nature is so beautiful!!

Lucie, like me, loves Kaffe Fassett!! Soul-mates!! Lucie usually has 2 dogs but only has one now because her white Scottish terrier died last year. The puppy she still has is a brown schnauzer who is only 17 years old!! I am sending Lucie one of my Siggies tomorrow!!

Monday, January 17, 2011

For years I really knew nothing about this man, but in recent years I have done some reading on him and Martin Luther King, Jr. was truly a man with a dream - to make sure this country (the United States of America) is always and forever a counrty of freedoms for all it citizens. Thank you, Dr. King!!

Saturday, January 15, 2011

I was looking at some of the blogs I follow and followed their blogs to some interesting challenges. I was over at Anne Marie's blog on Thursday and saw that she had a 9 patch challenge that looked interesting. Well, by the time I thought about a challenge and got back to her blog late Friday, she had closed her challenge before I could sign up. Well, now I was on a quest for something that would get me going again. I have been so absorbed with work that I have not done any quilting for weeks. I found that perfect challenge over at Ulla from Finland's blog Kotkarankki. Now Ulla's blog presented me with two challenges. The first one was to find out what kotkarankki meant in English. So, off I went into the Internet world and I think I found out that Rankki is a town in Finland and Kotka is a town in Finland. So, I am guessing that Ulla lives in one of those towns.

The real challenge from Ulla is to use up my stash this year!! To use more of what I already have before buying new fabric:

I went to all my bins of fabric this morning and decided to make a quilt for ME!!! Wow, what a concept!!﻿ So here is what I got done so far today:

Now this must be some pretty old fabric because most of the fabrics are in pastels and as many of you know, I am now a wild and crazy bright color kind of gal, with Kaffe Fassett fabrics being my most favorite!! One group of blocks have a red plaid center and the other group of blocks have a soft flowery center. Very sweet!!

Even though this quilt is way outside of my comfort zone, I am excited about how the blocks are turning out!! Hope everyone is having a great quilty weekend!!

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

I have had so many irons in the fire this past month that I have not had ANY time to quilt but I just wanted all of you to know I am thinking about you and I am hoping to share a new project with you soon!!!